Credential production devices process credential substrates to form credentials, such as, for example, identification cards, driver's licenses, passports, and other valuable documents. The credential substrates that are used to form such credentials include, for example, paper substrates, plastic substrates, semi-rigid or rigid plastic cards, and other materials. Exemplary processes performed on the credential substrates by credential production devices to produce the credential include printing an image on the substrate, writing data to the substrate, applying an overlaminate material to the substrate and other processes.
Credential laminators are generally configured to apply an overlaminate material to one or more surfaces of credential substrates to protect the surfaces from abrasion and environmental conditions. The lamination operation performed by credential laminators utilizes a laminating roller to apply heat and pressure to the overlaminate material that overlays the surface of the substrate and bonds the overlaminate material to the surface.
One type of overlaminate material is in the form of an overlaminate patch that can be attached to a carrier to form an overlaminate ribbon. The patch includes a layer of adhesive on a protective material, such as polyester. The protective layer is attached to the carrier such that the adhesive layer is exposed for lamination to the surface of a credential substrate.
Some credential laminators must align such an overlaminate patch to the substrate prior to performing the lamination operation. Once aligned, the laminating roller can perform the lamination operation to bond the patch to the surface of the substrate.
It is desirable to have the overlaminate patch precisely conform to the surface of the credential substrate in order to provide full edge-to-edge protection to the surface. However, due to inaccuracies in the laminating process, the patch must be made slightly smaller than the surface of the substrate in order to ensure that the patch does not extend beyond the substrate's edges. Accordingly, precision during the laminating process is extremely important because it ultimately determines the size of the patch that can be laminated to the surface of the substrate and, thus, the area of the surface that can be protected.
There is a continuous demand for improved lamination accuracy in credential laminators to facilitate the lamination of overlaminate material over more surface area of credential substrates.